The label "psychedelic", when it comes to music, is so diffuse that it´s almost meaningless. and introducing more precise criterias is probably more a waste of time than anything else -- when such a term has come on the loose it´s almost impossible to rein it in.
Still, I´d be interested if anyone has an example they think would qualify as "psychedelic harmonica". (And that´s completely regardless of how the perfomer sees it.) Of course it does not have to be from San Francisco 1966 etc.
Paul Butterfield - East West - the title cut. Jam band groove, lots of outside notes. More so from Bloomfield than Butterfield but still pretty mind-blowing when I first heard it. Yeah, '66, San Francisco. Oh, and it's 13 minutes long!
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year in the Tunnel of Dreams Studio. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Well I called this cover of mine Psychedelic...It is an LSD inspired song written by Peter Green and unfortunately more or less coincided with his slide into mental decline and his stepping away from the music scene.
MARK NAFTALIN SAYS that Michael Bloomfield brought "East- West" to the Butterfield Band in the days following an all-night acid trip (in Cambridge in late 1965). "Mike sequestered himself in the wee hours of the night," Naftalin recalls, "and when he emerged at dawn he said he'd had a revelation into the workings of Indian music." At first simply called "the raga," "East-West" was an exploration of music that moved modally, rather than through chord changes. As Naftalin explains, "This song was based, like Indian music, on a drone. In Western musical terms, it 'stayed on the one.' The song was tethered to a four-beat bass pattern and structured as a series of sections, each with a different mood, mode and color, always underscored by the drummer, who contributed not only the rhythmic feel but much in the way of tonal shading, using mallets as well as sticks on the various drums and the different regions of the cymbals. In addition to playing beautiful solos, Paul played important, unifying things in the background--chords, melodies, counterpoints, counter-rhythms. This was a group improvisation. In its fullest form it lasted more than an hour."
Good tunes here! I've spent a lot of time listening to when the levee breaks lately. A band asked me to learn that and a couple others (bring it on home, nobody's fault) and I'll join them at a practice. Very fun, always been a fave tune, heavy on the reverb. I've listened to the harp part a lot on the studio version since it's sometimes hard to make out..I wonder sometimes if there is a second harp track in there. Def can get psychedelic with it especially near the end.
trivia.... no fair looking this up on the internet.. you are either having a flashback or you are not.
i'll buy you a sugar cube,,, i'll buy you a sugar cube... i'll buy you a sugar cube, if you just give me some of your love gal.... just give me some of your love
just give me some of your love gal... just give me some of your love.
"Page recorded Plant's harmonica part using the backward echo technique, putting the echo ahead of the sound when mixing, creating a distinct effect.[4]
"When the Levee Breaks" was recorded at a different tempo, then slowed down, explaining the "sludgy" sound, particularly on the harmonica and guitar solos. Because this song was heavily produced in the studio, it was difficult to recreate live; the band only played it a few times in the early stages of their 1975 U.S. Tour, before dropping it for good. However, the song was revived for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1995.[4]
And on the reverse echo technique too--
During one session [with The Yardbirds], we were recording "Ten Little Indians", which was an extremely silly song that featured a truly awful brass arrangement. In fact, the whole track sounded terrible. In a desperate attempt to salvage it, I hit upon an idea. I said, "Look, turn the tape over and employ the echo for the brass on a spare track. Then turn it back over and we'll get the echo preceding the signal." The result was very interesting—it made the track sound like it was going backwards. Later, when we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to use backwards echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't be done". I said "Yes, it can. I've already done it." Then he began arguing, so I said, "Look, I'm the producer. I'm going to tell you what to do, and just do it." So he grudgingly did everything I told him to, and when we were finished he started refusing to push the fader up so I could hear the result. Finally, I had to scream, "Push the bloody fader up!" And lo and behold, the effect worked perfectly.[2]
So ScottK, it sounds like that second harp part you are hearing might actually be the reverse echo! Seems like it could be pretty hard to replicate in a live situation, although I think there are a few reverse-echo pedals on the market nowadays, I just have no idea how they sound for harp
Last Edited by Harmonica Lewinskey on Mar 06, 2017 3:04 AM
Thank you guys. As I hinted above "psychedelic" has a wide connotation frame -- and sometimes it apparently sounds just like anything else! My task is that I´m trying to "psychedelify" a recording, and apart from me being rather generous with the modulation setting on my TC Hall of fame reverb unit, I´m rather fumbling in the dark. But it´s fun and there are pointers here that are interesting.
Here is something to experiment with to see if it works for you to get a sound to "psychedelify" your playing:
The effect that is my goto sound for getting a "trippy feel" is to take my delay pedal, turn the repeats way up and turn the amount of signal being repeated way up. I set a speed that works for the song. If you have tap tempo that might help. It works best over a simple one or two chord pattern. You can create showers of repeat notes that you can jam to during your solo, interacting with the delay notes. At the end you click it off or go back to your regular delay settings.
I also have used a phase shifter effect sometimes, but that is putting icing on the cake, so to speak. It also may cause feedback problems in a live setting.
EDIT: Oh, you can start off slow with long notes then speed it up, slow down, etc. ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Mar 06, 2017 8:50 AM
I think the genre has more to do with the "state of mind" when the song was made rather than actual song itself.. Perhaps you need to take a little trip ;)
1847- I guessed John Sabastian or Paul Butterfield but I googled and couldn't find yet...
Harmonica Lewinski- thanks for posting that info,that makes sense now and how it sounds.
I found that using my 545sd through my PA a little heavy on the reverb sounds pretty good for that tune. When I have an amp hopefully in another month I'll see how it sounds through the amp then mic to PA and add reverb there. Look forward to seeing how it sounds with a band.
Last Edited by ScottK on Mar 06, 2017 5:13 PM
there was an article in the local news paper, where howard scott talked about jimi's last gig. and how he was one of the last people to see jimi alive.